Yaping's father nodded repeatedly in agreement. Then, he chuckled self-deprecatingly, "What's that saying again? 'All you hear is the laughter of the newlyweds, who cares about the tears of the elders?' With a baby around, the old can't live anymore. Sigh! The world is truly ours, and theirs too, but ultimately it belongs to them. We should step aside." Yaping's mother, overjoyed, said without any attempt to hide her delight, "Isn't that exactly what it means?"
Lijuan thus began her life as a young mistress. She didn't lift a finger, and if an oil bottle fell over, she wouldn't step over it, waiting for her mother-in-law to help her up before walking over herself. Even stepping over was too strenuous. Lijuan suddenly felt that pregnancy wasn't so bad after all; apart from occasional acid reflux, everything else was normal. "My grandson is so well-behaved! He doesn't cause any trouble at all. Other mothers are driven to the brink of vomiting and diarrhea, but this one is so sensible!" Yaping's mother's main tasks each day, besides chores, were to stare intently at Lijuan's belly whenever she had a spare moment, gazing at it greedily. Although Lijuan's clothes covered her flat belly, and nothing was visible, the old lady had already foreseen the soon-to-be-grown, expanding, and magnificent growth.
"Maybe it's a girl? Girls are quieter," Lijuan said.
“No, it looks like a son, I can tell.” The mother-in-law smiled contentedly. “Don’t worry! I don’t care if it’s a boy or a girl, I like them both. Guanhua’s family already has a boy, if yours is a girl, our family will have a perfect family, that’s good too. Boys and girls are the same, I’m not old-fashioned.” Yaping’s mother quickly explained, afraid that her daughter-in-law would be unhappy. “But I still think it’s a boy.” She couldn’t help but add.
Lijuan didn't care about her mother-in-law's opinion at all. No one had asked her to live there. Lijuan was comfortable living there, and she was free whether her mother-in-law lived there or not. Whether her mother-in-law preferred her grandson or granddaughter didn't matter at all. Whether she took care of them or not, Lijuan would love them anyway. Having one more grandmother or one less grandmother wouldn't affect their growth. "If your mother is picky and complains about whether I gave birth to a boy or a girl, then tell her to leave. I don't need her to take care of me," Lijuan said.
"No, my mom has never thought that way. Don't make up excuses about my mom," Yaping assured her.
On Sunday, after much admonition from his mother, Yaping helped his wife return to her parents' home.
As soon as she stepped out of the building, Lijuan shook off Yaping's hand and said, "Go away! I'm not an old lady, why do you keep pulling me? You're so tall, it's making my arm tired! I can walk by myself!" After saying that, she pushed Yaping.
Yaping put his arm around Lijuan's waist and said, "If I don't hold your hand, how can we even leave the house? My mom is watching! You can walk however you want now, I don't even care if you do somersaults."
"Oh! So I had my baby for your parents, and you don't care at all. You don't care about me at all." Lijuan started picking a fight.
"How can you be so unreasonable? You can talk to me if you don't let me pull, but I can't? You push me, so I have to cling to you like glue until you're satisfied? Are all pregnant women this abnormal?"
"Wrong! I was already this perverted when I wasn't pregnant. It wasn't because of pregnancy, so accept your fate!" Yaping grinned.
As soon as Lijuan entered her house, her mother came out to greet her, staring intently at Lijuan's belly from head to toe, her eyes crinkling into slits with laughter.
"Oh! I didn't realize! This little brat is going to be a mom! You know how to be one, right? You're still acting like a child yourself!"
"Nobody can do that. You'll know it once you're out there, and you'll definitely be better than me. What are you looking at? Are you all crazy? You stare at my belly the moment you see me. What can you possibly see?"
"How is it? Is his mother still giving you trouble?" Lijuan's mother asked Lijuan in a low voice when Yaping wasn't paying attention.
"They don't dare utter a single word. They're as docile as can be. I'm the boss in the family now. Everyone's very careful what they say in front of me. If they upset me, I won't let them have any more children."
“Exactly, this is the time for you to enjoy yourself. Don’t feel guilty. Do whatever you want, eat whatever you want. You think they’re doing this for your own good? Let me tell you! They’re doing this for the baby in your belly! They’re just using your belly for their own purposes. If you don’t put on airs and elevate your status in the family now, you won’t have another chance,” Lijuan’s mother advised. “Let me tell you, take this opportunity to squeeze as much money as possible out of his mother. Before, you didn’t have an excuse and were too embarrassed to ask, but now that you have a grandson, the money isn’t going to be spent on you, it’s all going to his grandson. Go and test him, give him whatever he has,” Lijuan’s mother said.
“They’re so poor, how much money could they possibly have? I don’t care. It’s my own son, I’ll raise him myself. I won’t spend their money, and it’ll save me the trouble of them interfering. Do you think their money is any good? Giving you a penny is like giving them tens of thousands in charity. That little bit of money isn’t even enough for his mother’s education.” Lijuan was quite principled. “What are you saying! Your child is also their grandson. The child doesn’t have your surname, he still has their Li surname, right? It’s only right that they pay for it, why don’t you take it? They only have one son, Yaping. If you don’t want him, won’t he all go to his sister? You should take him.”
"You're so annoying. Money, money, money, what's the point of fighting over such a small amount of money? If his family were Li Ka-shing, I might put in some effort, but that little bit of money isn't worth it at all."
"To be honest, as a mother, I don't want you to have a child at all. Childbirth is so painful; you're the one suffering, and all they care about is their happiness. Not to mention the difficulties of raising a child later on. Childbirth is such a hurdle for women! I just want my daughter to be healthy, safe, and free from suffering. I don't care about her family!"
"Don't talk nonsense! It was my decision to have the child. Yaping didn't force me at all. Anyway, I was going to have the child sooner or later. It's better to have it sooner rather than later. After the child is born, there will be someone to take care of it for me. If I wait until I'm old, thirty-five or thirty-six, his mother might be bedridden and unable to do anything. How many hands do I have? Who am I going to take care of?"
“Hey! Doesn’t he have an older sister? She’s in Harbin, close to his parents! Let her take care of him! Why are you suffering so much? They haven’t even asked you for help, and you’re already thinking about it. You’re crazy.” Lijuan’s mother tapped Lijuan’s temple. “Having a baby early is good too. The responsibility of having only one child is something you can’t escape anyway.”
That night, Lijuan lay in bed. Yaping lay reading.
"Would you like to flip through the books?" Lijuan pointed to her crotch, acting coy.
"No. What if you damage it? It's better to be careful."
"You're so annoying! I told you to read, so just read! Why are you dodging and making excuses? I want to read!" Lijuan's face turned red, and she turned her back to Yaping, still seething with anger.
As soon as Lijuan became pregnant, her most obvious reaction was wanting sex. During the day, whenever she sat down and was not disturbed, her mind was filled with erotic images, and she began to feel embarrassed even while sitting alone.
Yaping hesitated, reaching out his hand and then pulling it back. Lijuan grabbed Yaping's hand and, without a word, covered it against her chest. "It itches, scratch it."
Yaping began to scratch gently, and the moment she did, a serious problem arose. Soon, Yaping's breathing became rapid, and her face turned bright red. Lijuan's pupils also dilated, and her nostrils flared.
Yaping turned off the lights.
Yaping handled the glass with the utmost care, as if it were a handleless cup, which greatly displeased Lijuan.
"It's over? Only three minutes?! What are you doing?! I, I didn't even feel it!" Lijuan angrily kicked Yaping.
"Okay, okay, touch, touch. I'm scared! What if I hurt you? This is no joke. You should restrain yourself a little and wait until the danger period is over."
"It's not that easy to lose it. Only a few people lose it. How am I supposed to live like this! Do you want me to die for the first three months and the next three months?!" Lijuan was extremely distressed.
"I'll give you a kiss, okay!" Yaping coaxed.
Lijuan was going crazy. She wanted it every night, and Yaping was struggling to keep up, desperately trying to stop her. "Are your hormones too high? This won't do! Something bad will happen sooner or later. Go see a doctor," Yaping said.
"What the hell are you looking at! What am I supposed to say? That I can't sleep at night without a man? Besides, with your little toothpick, I can't even see it. What's going on? You're so annoying! You're making me unable to concentrate on anything else all day. You better watch out, or I'll go out and hire a male prostitute! You keep teasing me, making my appetite grow bigger and bigger. Why don't you just feed me once and I'll stop this nonsense? The hungrier I am, the more I want to eat. You're so annoying!"
That night, Lijuan was incredibly mischievous, her voice trembling with sultry allure, her eyes sparkling with seductive charm, and her hands moving with such gusto that Yaping couldn't resist. Wanting to give Lijuan a taste of her own medicine and wash away the shame of his "toothpick" pastime, Yaping let loose and went all out. Lijuan slept soundly that night, so soundly that she was snoring softly until dawn.
"Are you alright?" In the morning, the first thing Yaping did after waking up was to look through Lijuan's underwear.
"Go away! I told you it wouldn't fall off, you're so annoying. It's nothing. I can take it if you do it again." Saying this, she moved her mouth towards Yaping's stomach. Yaping was so startled that she pulled up her pants and jumped off the bed, saying, "No, no, I had nightmares all night. And you were snoring, really!"
Lijuan, with a radiant complexion and a spirited demeanor, slipped on her sneakers and went to work.
One night of bliss is worth three pounds of ginseng. Lijuan felt refreshed and invigorated.
I climbed to the fifth-floor office without even breaking a sweat, sat down, made myself a cup of Ovaltine, and carefully peeled the eggs my mother-in-law had boiled, preparing for breakfast. Being pregnant is great; at work, I'm treated like a protected panda, able to do whatever I want.
Suddenly, Lijuan felt a dark heat beneath her. It was that familiar feeling of menstruation.
Lijuan got goosebumps all over her body, yelled "Oh no!" and rushed into the toilet.
Lijuan rushed into the bathroom, pulled down her pants, and checked herself—it was nothing serious. Just water.
But that day, Lijuan felt very unwell, like a dehydrated vegetable, constantly expelling fluids from her body. In the afternoon, she couldn't help but go home early.
After returning home, she didn't dare to delay and immediately went to bed, not daring to tell her mother-in-law that something had happened. She only said she was a little tired and wanted to sleep. Around midnight, Lijuan checked again and, oh no, a coffee-colored liquid, somewhere between blood and water, started to come out. Lijuan panicked and woke Yaping to check. Yaping immediately snapped out of his daze and said, "Should we go to the emergency room?"
Lijuan said, "How can we go in the middle of the night? How about we go first thing tomorrow morning?"